Justices ask lower court to reconsider class action case
Practice Focuses - POSTED: 2016/12/11 16:31
Practice Focuses - POSTED: 2016/12/11 16:31
The Supreme Court is asking a lower court to take another look at a class action lawsuit brought by nearly 300 cable technicians that alleges their company encouraged workers to underreport overtime hours.
The justices said Monday that a federal appeals court should reconsider its decision allowing the lawsuit to proceed against cable installation firm FTS USA and its parent company, UniTek USA.
The companies argue that the district court should not have calculated damages for hundreds of workers by averaging the experiences of only 17 workers who testified.
A federal judge awarded the technicians $3.8 million after a jury found the company at fault. A federal appeals court said that award was too high, but rejected arguments that a single class action lawsuit was improper.